Being a Cat

Do you focus on the negative or the positive? If you receive 100 compliments, do you cherish the 98 good compliments or focus on the two negative?

Even though there are positive people who only focus on happy things in life, I think that, on average, most people will focus on the negative. They will notice the positive things in life but will also notice the negative. Hopefully they won’t dwell on the negative but noticing and dwelling on are two different things. Dwelling on the negative can be a soul crushing proposition but noticing is just acknowledging that something less than good has happened.

Of course, this is what happens with people. Cats are different creatures altogether. Yes, there is the size – the four legs, the pointy ears, and the luxurious fur coat. But their brains are wired differently. At least, my cat’s brain is wired differently.

I tend to eat in front of the TV using a TV table. Cupid, my cat, notices every time I pull the table in front of my chair. He is hopeful that somehow he is going to get a treat. Does he? Rarely.

Every once in a great while, when I finish eating, I will put my plate on the floor for Cupid to lick. This generally happens with my breakfast plate and only if there is butter or some kind of grease on the plate. Cupid likes greasy egg residue and will lick the plate, if he is so inclined. Sometimes he sniffs it and walks away. He is quite finicky when it comes to greasy egg residue.

Now when I say this happens once in a great while, that means it happens once every other week or so. That is maybe twice a month. The rest of the time, for the other 88 meals (3 per day x 30 days), I don’t give him my plate to lick. As a matter of fact, I chase him away from my table so I can eat in peace.

One would think that if a being is yelled at, squirted with water and told to go away 88 times in one month, he would learn his lesson and just not come to hang out at the table. After all, two chances out of a whole month is not a great chance in getting a treat. Especially when every other time the treat is rejected. So that is just once a month to have a treat. Why even bother to come hang out at the table when more than likely the result will be negative instead of positive?

Why? Because cats are not people. Or I should say, Cupid is not a person. He does not focus on the negative but on that one small chance of the positive. Even now he is hovering around my table because I am using it to type on my laptop. He can’t tell that and is hoping for a treat. Although less than an hour ago I chased him away so I could eat in peace. Still, now he is bouncing from the floor to the couch to the back of my chair hoping I am about to put a plate on the floor with greasy egg residue.

Cupid is a creature of little brain. But his little brain does not see the glass as half empty. He doesn’t notice when the skies are gray or when the stock market is down or when something tragic happens in the news. His world is my apartment and, in this world of his, life is the basket he sleeps in, the top of the bookcase where he naps, the kitty litter in the bathroom, his container of dry food, the water in his bowl, his plate of wet food, and the remote possibility of greasy egg residue. He ignores the negative of being yelled at for hanging around the table while I am trying to eat. He forgets the negative of when I am away for a few days and he doesn’t get wet food and has to just eat the dry. He doesn’t remember from one day to the next that I would prefer he not try to sleep on my feet when I am watching TV because he is a little fur ball so I push him away until he finally wanders away to sleep in his basket or on top of the book case. His brain is so small that he can only focus on a few things. So he does not focus on the negative…only the positive.

I kind of wish I was more like Cupid. I wish I was more content with my station in life and not longing for a different place to live or more money or things I don’t own or any of the other myriad of things I think would make me happier. I kind of wish I would just focus on the positive things in life all the time and completely ignore the negative. Then what people say or do would not bother me but completely roll off my back. I would just do what Cupid does when I chase him away – sit and groom myself a moment and then curl up in a ball and go to sleep.

But I am not a cat. I have a bigger brain and things tend to bother me. I do try not to focus on the negative things but I do notice them and sometimes they really get under my skin. But I guess that just makes me like everyone else. Besides, if I wasn’t this way, people would think it was odd if, when faced with a negative situation, I would start to lick my arm, curl up in a ball and then fall asleep. I may be a happier person but I’m pretty sure my world would shrink to the size of a padded cell somewhere. I’m sure Cupid would be happy there but I’m pretty sure I would quickly learn how to focus on the negative. Of course, focusing on the negative would probably get me released from the padded cell. That is the way that would work. Having human emotions and reactions is sane whereas having cat emotions, if you aren’t a cat, is insane.

Either way, Cupid wouldn’t care. As long as he has his food, water, kitty litter, a place to sleep and greasy egg residue. He is a happy cat. Glass full to the top and sunshine and butterflies all the time kind of happy. That is, in essence, being a cat.